By Hiroya Kawase 【Original】 Apr 3, 2024
On March 20, a delegation of volunteers calling to retract the UN recommendation that the people of Okinawa Prefecture be declared “indigenous peoples” delivered a speech at the Human Rights Council meeting held at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, addressing the council to “reconsider” the recommendation.
Under the circumstances, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faction submitted a resolution calling for the repeal of the recommendation at the final plenary session of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly on March 28. However, it was rejected by the opposition majority.
“This is unprecedented”: Matayoshi, prefectural assembly member of LDP, criticizes the attitude of the assembly’s ruling party
This discussion began in 2008, when the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) issued a recommendation to the Japanese government that the people of Ryukyu/Okinawa should be recognized as indigenous and their rights protected.
Although the Japanese government rejected the recommendation, recommendations to the same effect have been issued a total of six times since, including by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Satoru Nakamura, president of Okinawa Policy Research Forum of Japan—a conservative think tank working on this issue—recently organized a delegation from Okinawa and delivered a speech in Geneva.
He took the podium in a slot allotted to the NGO, Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, pointing out that most Okinawans have not even been informed of the recommendation and that Governor Denny Tamaki has stated that the issue “has never been declared or discussed in the prefectural assembly or Okinawan society.” He then requested investigators be dispatched to learn about the actual situation in Okinawa without prejudice or bias and that the recommendation be withdrawn.
Last September, Tamaki delivered a speech at the Human Rights Council calling to ease the burden of U.S. military bases. It was later revealed that the NGO that had prepared a slot for Tamaki was the Citizens’ Diplomatic Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which claims that Okinawans are indigenous people, and that this subject had been pursued in the prefectural assembly.
When the resolution calling for the recommendation’s withdrawal was submitted at the plenary session on March 28, assembly member Tadaaki Shimajiri (LDP), spoke in favor of the resolution and called for its adoption, saying, “Leaving this recommendation in place is nothing more than an act of betrayal against the people of (Okinawa).”
After that, however, five members from opposition parties, including Komeito and Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), left the vote on grounds that sufficient discussions have not been made amongst the parties. All members of the ruling party (All Okinawa), which supports Tamaki, opposed the proposal without any dissenting discussion or questions, and the vote was rejected by much of the opposition.
At a UN Mission Briefing held on March 31, Seigi Matayoshi, a member of the prefectural assembly (LDP), revealed that when the vote on the resolution to withdraw the recommendation was put on the agenda of the prefectural general affairs and planning committee, which he chairs, a member of the ruling party claimed he had “not seen the agenda” and that he “cannot handle something I haven’t seen” despite having been notified in advance. Matayoshi harshly criticized the ruling party’s attitude, saying, “This is unprecedented.”
Since the proposal did not pass even though no one opposed it, Nakamura also opined that “it is clear there is a secret promise with All-Okinawa to ‘make the Okinawan people indigenous.’”
Full Text of Satoru Nakamura’s Speech to the Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have recommended six times that the Japanese government must recognize the Okinawan people as indigenous and protect their rights.
However, most Okinawans are unaware of them being considered indigenous by the UN and have been repeatedly encouraged to do so.
Even Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki, who addressed the last Human Rights Council, has repeatedly stated that the people of Okinawa have never been declared indigenous, nor has this been discussed by the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly or in Okinawan society.
The fact that such a recommendation is being issued without any discussion or demand by the Okinawan people is clearly an attempt by certain governments to divide and weaken the Japanese people by pitting them against each other.
The UN should not base its recommendations on reports by separatists deliberately manipulated by particular groups.
We call on this Council to dispatch a Special Rapporteur to Okinawa to meet with the Okinawan people and learn about their realities without prejudice or bias.
We also request that the Council reconsider these recommendations.
(March 20, The United Nations Office at Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland)
